text:
Friday, 06 September 2013 06:54 PM
Employers are sketching a hazy picture of the U.S. job market for the Federal Reserve to weigh in deciding this month whether to reduce its stimulus for the economy — and, if so, by how much.
The economy added 169,000 jobs in August but many fewer in June and July than previously thought. The unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent, the lowest since 2008, but only because more people stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.
All told, Friday's report from the Labor Department pointed to a lukewarm job market: Hiring is steady but subpar. Much of the growth is in lower-paying occupations. And many people are giving up on their job searches in frustration. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work reached its lowest point in 35 years.
The sluggish jobs report reflects a U.S. economy that's still struggling to accelerate. The economy grew at a modest 2.5 percent annual rate from April through June, and most analysts think it's weakened since then.
The Fed has been buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds to try to keep home-loan and other borrowing rates low. Many economists have expected the central bank to taper its monthly purchases after it meets Sept. 17 and 18. Friday's data may lead the Fed to slow its bond buying more gradually than it might have otherwise.
"Soft employment gains only muddied the waters," said James Marple, an economist at TD Economics. "While the data did not take September tapering off the table, it does suggest that the Fed will use a lighter touch."
Marple and some other economists say they now think the Fed may announce this month that it's trimming its bond purchases by $10 billion rather than earlier expectations of $20 billion.
The revised job growth for June and July shrank the previously estimated gain for those months by 74,000. July's gain is now estimated at 104,000 — the fewest in more than a year and down from a previous estimate of 162,000. June's was revised to 172,000 from 188,000.
In the past three months, employers have added an average of just 148,000 jobs. For the first five months of the year, they had added an average of 199,000.
Stock prices rose and fell through the day as traders pondered the job report's impact on the Fed and tensions over the prospect of U.S. military action against Syria. The Dow Jones industrial average finished down nearly 15 points. Broader stock averages closed essentially flat.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 2.93 percent, from 2.95 percent before the jobs report was released.
One possible concern for the Fed is that most of the hiring in August was in lower-paying occupations. This continues a trend that emerged earlier this year.
For example, retailers such as clothing stores, groceries and electronics outlets added 44,000 jobs. Hotels, restaurants and bars added 27,000. Temp hiring rose by 13,000.
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says lower-wage industries have been generating a disproportionate role in hiring because many unemployed people have become desperate enough to take such jobs.
Aside from their low pay, many of those workers are being limited to fewer hours than they'd like.
"In a weak labor market, workers can't find anything better," Baker said.
Phillip Bailey, 39, took a job three months ago in kitchen prep at a McDonald's in Detroit after his unemployment benefits ran out. But his new job pays just $7.40 an hour, and he's usually scheduled for only about 15 to 20 hours a week.
He's working many fewer hours than he did in previous jobs. Bailey used to conduct home energy audits, which found ways for people to reduce utility bills.
"This is a lot less than I'm used to making," he said of his current job. "It's impossible to get by."
The August jobs report showed that hiring in higher-paying fields was more mixed.
Manufacturers added 14,000 jobs in August, the first gain after five months of declines. But that was more than offset by downward revisions that shaved off 26,000 jobs from June and July's figures. That left overall factory jobs in August 12,000 lower than the previous month.
Auto manufacturers added 19,000 jobs. Americans are buying more cars than at any time since the recession began in December 2007. Some of the jobs also likely reflected workers who were rehired last month after being temporarily laid off in July, when factories switched to new models.
But construction jobs were unchanged in August. And the information industry, which includes high-tech workers, broadcasting and film production, cut 18,000 jobs. The biggest losses were in the film industry.
Hiring in construction has slowed drastically from earlier in the year despite a recovery in the housing industry. The construction industry has added an average of just 2,500 jobs a month in the past six months. That compares with an average 25,500 gain in the previous six months.
Employers might have turned cautious last month as the economy slowed. And the downgraded job totals for June and July reflected a loss of government jobs that wasn't picked up initially and was likely related to federal spending cuts that kicked in earlier this year.
Government job cuts were much steeper in June and July than previously estimated. All told, they were revised lower by 38,000. That more than offset a gain of 17,000 in August. Layoffs at government contractors likely also contributed to the decline in manufacturing jobs in those two months.
The percentage of adults working or looking for work, known as the participation rate, fell to 63.2, the lowest since 1978. The rate for men, which has been declining gradually, fell last month to just below 70 percent — its lowest point on records dating to 1948.
Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, said the decline in the male participation rate suggests that many men who once worked in areas such as manufacturing and construction are giving up on finding work rather than transitioning to another industry.
"It seems they feel that they're never going to get another job in their sector or in any other sector," Handler said.
Still, some economists suggested that an increase last month in hours worked and average hourly pay provided important boosts to Americans' pay and could support stronger consumer spending in coming months.
Average hourly earnings rose 5 cents to $24.05. Hourly pay has risen 2.2 percent in the past 12 months. That's slightly ahead of the 2 percent inflation rate over the same period.
The average hourly workweek ticked up to 34.5 from 34.4, a sign that companies needed more labor. That can lead to larger paychecks.
Earlier this week, some signs had suggested that the economy might have strengthened. Surveys of manufacturing and service firms, for example, showed that they expanded at a healthy pace in August. But Friday's jobs report dampened such optimism.
"We've lost momentum, which is disappointing," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "But we may regain it. That's why (the jobs report) is not a slam-dunk pushing the Fed one way or the other."
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text:
Talk:1044: Romney Quiz
I got 4/12! I feel proud! Davidy22[talk] 08:29, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
I remember when Herman Cain quoted the Pokémon 2000 film. Then again, did not a pro-life politician use Mewtwo's quote? Greyson (talk) 13:21, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
After reading the explanation several times, I still don't get the joke. Is the comic meant as comment that there's something wrong with those kinds of quizzes? Or is it meant to emphasize how well the ordinary ones do line up by offering a bad one for comparison? Or is it just relying on sheer bizarreness, which is why I keep looking for an underlying satirical element that isn't there? I'm just so confused. Mel (talk) 12:22, 15 July 2014 (UTC)
- Its comparing the absurd (as viewed by Democrats) statements made by Romney to famous quotes by Charlie, implying that they are equally ridiculous and fantastical.126.96.36.199 22:04, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
I'm guessing that Romney said #11, right? Youforgotthisthing (talk) 13:57, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
That is actually very crappy upside down text. Did you get it from [upsidedowntext.com]? Check Please! StillNotOriginal (Talk to me!) 23:32, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
KOTSIII Banner.jpg 149.5KB 1 downloads
Salute gentlemen, we are pleased to announce the gents at Syndicate Squadron have given us a special treat to share with the ROF community. Knights of the Sea III, featuring a 1918 plane set. This map differs somewhat from the first two Knights of the Sea events in not only the plane set, but some naval targets being moved farther SW closer to the area between Dover and Calais. This should allow for more action over the water without having to navigate extreme distances offshore with no land marks. However, for the brave there are still a few naval targets operating out to sea of Ostende Harbor and far east of Felixstowe, England. There is also the long haul Gotha raid of the infamous "England Squadron" that is tasked with flying completely across the Channel and hitting Felixstowe and Harwich, and returning home, about a 3hour round trip
We will run this in place of the normal Sunday Vintage Mission, just remember you will have to go "Mods On" mode to see the server.
This is a 6 hour mission that starts at 0500 just before dawn. For those who don't care for night flying, don't worry, there will be light enough to see at 0700, 2hrs after mission start.
IMPORTANT - This tournament is mods on. It requires only 2 mods to be run by all players
- Soldiers_Package_2v4(SYN)
- Tirpitz_Battery_Object_v1.0
Here is a dropbox link to a folder containing both mods and the JGSME.exe tool for those that don't already have it.
Simply download the two mods, drop them into your ROF MODS folder and activate them using JGSME. Make sure they are the ONLY two mods you have activated. There is a quick how-to for those that have never used mods in ROF before at the bottom of this post.
Mission Background:
February 25, 1918
The unrestricted submarine warfare campaign has failed to end the war, now it is down to the German army, reinforced by units from the Eastern Front. The German Marinekorps are to support the army with attempts to hinder British logistics and reinforcements, and to defend the U-boats in and around their ports. The Royal Navy have discovered that the Dover barrage has been ineffective. Admiral Bacon has been replaced by Admiral Keyes, who has emphasised the defence of the Straits and also has plans to attack Ostend and Zeebrugge.
The side which completes the most objectives will win. The Germans have the advantage and will be awarded a free objective at the beginning of the mission so that they win any ties.
gotha_dover.jpg 755.33KB 1 downloads
Bomb the naval dump at Harwich, Dover Station and either the dump or station at Ramsgate.
Sink merchant ships in port at Dunkirk and Calais.
Sink merchant ships in English ports and home waters.
Sink Royal Navy drifters.
Destroy bridges on the rail route out of Calais.
Bomb the big British depot at Furnes.
Destroy Entente balloons and transport, also complete the indicated recces.
felix_cliffs of dover.jpg 180.16KB
1 downloads
Sink a German destroyer as the flotilla returns to Zeebrugge from northeast of Ramsgate.
Sink German minesweepers as they clear the old advanced barrage.
Sink a U-boat as it attempts to ambush the Dutch convoy.
Sink a U-boat between the barrages as it tries to pass the Dover Straits .
Sink U-boats in port at Bruges, and also Ostend and Zeebrugge.
Destroy coastal defences at Zeebrugge and Ostend.<br>Bomb bridges over the Bruges ship canal at Zeebrugge.
Bomb the dump and railyard at Bruges.
Destroy German balloons and transport, also complete the indicated recces.
NOTES - Only the fuel dumps need to be destroyed at Harwich. The Ramsgate target can be either the station or the ammunition dump in the harbour. The Bruges dump consists of the fuel tanks and surrounding sheds, as well as the sheds around the railyard.
-Both Bray Dunes and Klemskerke aerodromes will be deactivated if their hangars are destroyed. Any machines based there will have ten minutes to take off, or they will be lost.
-The coast bombardment can only be conducted once. It may begin shortly after it is light enough for balloons, though the Ostend balloon has to be destroyed before the cruisers will approach the coast. German seaplanes have radios and can direct fire on the bombarding ships.
-Further recces of Bruges and Zeebrugge and targets in England are needed to complete the bombing missions. The bridges are tough and may also be repaired.
-Balloons are vulnerable just before dawn. No recces possible before dawn!
Thanks to SYN_Vander and SYN_Bandy for the original drifter vessels mod which then made it into the game!
Good luck gentlemen!
As you can see on the map, this one has quite a lot going on!
Full Map.JPG 214.44KB 2 downloads
MID.JPG 321.69KB 2 downloads
SW.JPG 322.31KB 0 downloads
SE.JPG 275.92KB 2 downloads
Instructions on mods:
1. Download the JGSME.exe file and place it in your main Rise of Flight directory. Example: C:\Program Files x86\1C-777\Rise of Flight (or wherever your particular install is located)
2. In that main ROF directory, create a folder named MODS <-- must be in all CAPS
3. Drop the two mods you downloaded (Soldiers_Package_2v4(SYN) and Tirpitz_Battery_Object_v1.0) into that MODS folder.
4. Double click the JGSME.exe program and it will ask if the MODS folder is where you want it to look for mods, click OK or Yes.
5. The two mods should be visible in the left hand pane of the JGSME program, select each one and click the arrow pointing to the right to activate. Note: Upon activating one of the mods it will warn you about overwriting some files, this is normal, click yes or ok to this.
6. You're done! The mods are now active on your game, however to see the game server for the event, you will have to launch the ROF settings window (where you control graphics settings, etc) Under Game Settings, click the checkbox next to Modifications. This will put your game into MODS ON mode. When you start ROF, you will see a flashing "Mods On" message in the upper right corner of the screen. Remember to turn this off when you want to connect back to the regular "Mods Off" servers like Wargrounds, NFF, etc. otherwise you won't see them in the list.
If anyone has difficulty with the mods, don't hesitate to PM me and I'll help as best I can. Good luck!


text:
On dealing with dudes: An open letter to Penny Arcade
By Lesley | February 4, 2011
I read your webcomic. I've attended PAXs both East and Prime. I admire Child's Play, your excellent charity organization. Calling myself a "fan" would probably be an overstatement, but I generally enjoy your work and have had little reason for second thoughts until recently.
I will not re-hash the series of events here — they extend back a good six months and given that other folks have already done the thankless work of timeline-assembly I will throw the uninformed in that direction. It shall suffice to say that you unwittingly upset some people, then made it worse by unwittingly mocking the people you upset, and then made it worse still by raising the mockery to mass-consumption levels, and some regrettable things have thus been said and done on many sides. I knew that some kind of apology or truce would be in the offing; it was a waiting game, for the simple reason that neither of you seem to be callous monsters. Sometimes the injured need only bide their time until the better part of humanity comes to the fore. The people you hurt, the people who experience this sort of shit on a regular basis, they are good at patience, and they are good at surviving — but they are not good at forgetting.
Your resistance was not surprising. It always seems as though these issues will go away if you stop looking at them, which is a function of being one of the fortunates for whom looking at them is optional. But you can't push these conversations aside; you can't ignore them away, and you can't will them out of existence. You fucked up, and this is something that happens to everyone. The only distinguishing characteristic of this particular fuckup is that you did it publicly, in front of a huge audience, and in so doing you both caused injury to some sexual assault survivors whom you never meant to hurt, and created support for some sociopathic violence-worshipping misogynists whom you never meant to encourage. Meanwhile, the majority of the spectators find themselves unwilling participants in a game of privilege dodgeball — either you're with one side or you're with the other.
Life is not so black and white. It would be easier if it were. It would be easier if both of you were simple caricatures drawn in broad strokes, because then we could all just write you off. Nothing to see here, nothing to salvage. But you're not cartoon characters, in real life; instead you are people. Annoying, frustrating, messy, damaged, confused people. Like everyone else.
The hell of it is, none of us spring from the womb with a complete understanding of how our culture works. Indeed, we spend the first several years of our lives being taught how to be complicit in social systems, not how to question them. People who find themselves marginalized later on may develop this skill, as much for survival as for any vague intellectual gratification. Queer folks eventually figure out that our culturally-mandated disgust for non-hetero relationships or non-binary expressions of gender makes them targets for violence and hate. People of color realize how racism in both overt and deeply subtle forms stacks the odds against their success. Disabled folks come to understand that this world is not built for them. People on the fringes learn to criticize because these cultural blocks affect their lives in palpable, measurable ways, and we are quick to recognize unfairness and injustice when it applies to us in a form we can see and feel.
People who identify as feminists and other social justice activists do not live in a different world. We live in the same world, we live in a world that values and privileges certain experiences, abilities, and appearances over others, and that is why we are so angry. Because we are as steeped in the culture that marginalizes and yes, even oppresses us, as everyone else is — we can't simply climb out of culture like getting out of a pool; we can't wash it off and go on our way unaffected henceforth. You are at the very beginning stages of understanding this — the fact is, you are as affected by sexism as women are. Same with racism, same with any -ism you can name. It has fucked you up too. When your [male] experience has been privileged for your whole life, it's like a pair of cultural blinders — you can't even conceive that the world and the people in it extend beyond the narrow field that you can see. You need help to realize there is more to it. You need someone to tell you, hey, you can take those off, you know.
When social justice activists like me talk about calling folks out on their -isms, we often make the assumption that "good" people will automatically listen and change; that being told once that something is sexist or racist or ableist or insert-offense-here should be enough. But it almost never is, because as human beings we are mostly selfish, and we don't like feeling badly about ourselves, and being told one has said or done something terribly, terribly wrong is certain to make us feel awful. So we resist. I understand my fellow activists' inclination to write resistant people off as assholes, and I understand the need to ration one's sanity points in heated discussions. However, I also think that the first step in helping folks like you understand the complexities of cultural forces like rape culture, or whatever -ism may be at stake, is believing that you are worth talking to, that it is worth the effort to communicate tough ideas to you, with patience and care. I believe that we cannot afford to write people like you off; each time we do, we've missed an opportunity to make ourselves heard.
And so, I am unwilling to write you off. Instead, I am going to hold you accountable. I am not the kind of activist who believes in keeping people on the hook for their fuckups indefinitely. It's not my style. You cannot expect everyone to be as patient with you. I am a battle-hardened veteran of these conversations and yet I do not tire of them — others will feel differently. For my part, I believe negative reinforcement is not effective in encouraging people, especially reluctant dudes like you, to continue a difficult conversation in which you will be expected to admit your ignorance again and again. Talking about these issues is hard. It's hard for me and it's hard for you. And here you didn't even ask for this directly, and yet the conversation is happening to you, and it must happen to you, because this isn't a single event, but rather a reality that pervades the whole of games culture and culture at large. And as tired of this subject as you may feel right now, imagine how tired those who live with it every day of their lives must be.
Can this situation be repaired? Probably not, not completely. But it can be salvaged. It will take a formal acknowledgment at PAX East from both of you that you handled things badly. Most of the actions that have been taken on all sides have happened for the same reason, and that is a desire to not be socially ostracized, trolled, or left out. And isn't that what PAX is supposed to be for? It shouldn't be a space where no one is held culpable for their words or actions; it should instead be a space where we strive to be more sensitive of the differences that set us apart. Like it or not, you are the only people who have any power at all to set this tone.
To employ an analogy worthy of Penny Arcade: When we step in shit, we don't just keep walking around in those same shoes until the shit wears off, tracking it everywhere we go and hoping that in the meantime no one will smell it or notice. We scrape the shit away.
I will see you in March. Don't let me down.
Lesley Kinzel
Game-player, webcomic-reader, and radical activist
86 Comments
As always, beautiful and revealing words. You manage to articulate so much that I often find unable to put into words. Thank you for this.
This is a lovely open letter, and with your permission, I will share it with an acquaintance who needs it-he got into some hot water (deservedly) in an online forum over using rape apology, and honestly, I was going to write him off until I read this. If not for him, then for his daughters.
Lesley, your letter was razor-sharp insightful. I sincerely hope the PAX dudebros read it and start the process of removing their blinkers. My, but the things men do and say that scare the shit out of women… and how the men enjoy it. I want to move away from this country, but honestly there is no country without rape and pedophilia.
I know you like to keep your standards high, so here are a couple of typos I found in your letter:
"The hell of it is, none of us spring from the womb will [italics mine] a complete understanding…"
"To employ an analogy worth [italics mine] of Penny Arcade…"
I know you are a perfectionist, and so am I, and I hope you aren't offended that I pointed those out to you. If so, then please accept my apologies.
Blessed be,
"My, but the things men do and say that scare the shit out of women… and how the men enjoy it."
This? This is part of the problem.
It's so hard not to just totally lose one's shit over this nonsense.
Beautifully done.
A very thoughtful letter, save for one thing I feel clashes. Near the open you direct "the uninformed" towards The Debacle Timeline — a website that actively pushes the agenda that Mike is some kind of monster. I would hope that a letter that feels like it's acknowledging fault-by-ignorance rather than fault-by-maliciousness could at least point out that the Timeline is in no way making the same point that you are.
But, again, a very good read.
Another writeup with a good outline of the situation is from gamer / comic nerd / life blogger JetWolf at http://blog.jetwolf.com/2011/02/02/the-boys-club-part-2/
Possible error in your reasoning:
Mike and Jerry have, as white males, received many of the privileges you assume they did, but they are also nerds of extraordinary calibre. They have mentioned time and again their experiences of being bullied and ostracized in school, and Mike has discussed his issues with anxiety. Problem- and adversity-free they are not, and perhaps not blind to being on the fringe, having existed on part of it themselves.
I am curious, and this question is not meant to undermine any of the hurt, pain, trauma or reasoning that rape victims and their loved ones have endured (in other words, I do not ask this to undermine the validity of the complaints): Why now? PA has absolutely included rape in their comics before, and arguably more blatantly. In this comic, the dickwolves were a sidebar to the punchline. In another, an airport security guard informs Tycho to expect being raped "through the pants." Why the reaction to this comic? Was this complaint against them a long time coming, or is there something unique about the 'wolves that created this controversy? I can understand their initial reaction of perplexity and derision; after so many years of tacit approval, surely this seemed like a run-of-the-mill controversy they'd dealt with before. What changed here?
This is a very fair, well reasoned letter. I was unfamiliar with this whole controversy until yesterday when I happend upon the debacle timeline, and I have to say, some rational discussion is welcome. As much as the attackers (on both sides) are reprehensible, what really bothered me was the Shakesville blog entries and comments . I can't recall the last time I was so frightened by such bald-faced anger. Reading through those posts and comments literally made my stomach hurt. As bad as Mike and Jerry have screwed the pooch, they didn't make me want to sleep with the lights on.
Maybe not, but also, maybe if you had post-traumatic stress syndrome after a rape you might feel a bit different. For some people, rape jokes are a trigger. If you don't care about people and their triggers, that's your prerogative. Shakesville's prerogative is to provide a space where if you DO have such triggers, you will not be subjected to them so flippantly as you would in the the rest of the internet. Shakesville is a safe space, and generally the rest of the internet is not. And of course, their argument follows that rape jokes minimize the full context of pain that rape causes, which is basically what rape culture is.
I guess that's the problem with privilege though, people assume that others are hyper sensitive when they have no. frickin. clue. what they have gone through, and what they are going through everyday of their lives. People who have been raped hear it everywhere – 'that girl is asking to be raped in that skirt'; 'that test raped me'; 'people only complain about rape because they're too ugly to get raped themselves'; etc etc etc. It's everywhere. It exists. The writers of this comic were clearly not aware of the damage rape culture does, probably through the privilege of not being affected by rape or post-traumatic stress disorder. They're not bad people, I believe, they're just privileged and haven't really understood what feminists are whining about. A little life experience and a little reading will clear that up.
I mean, until a month ago they probably could have written a comic about killing other people's wives and children. Now that one of them has lost the privilege of not having that joke directed at them, it's suddenly not a joke for him.
I find myself less forgiving given Mike's recent tweet that he plans to wear his dickwolves t-shirt to PAX. I don't know – that feels a lot more aggressively fuck-you than just not getting it.
And it makes me sad – I have enjoyed their creative efforts over the years, though I've never been a PAX attendee.
Fucking A. Well said and I hope they listen.
Okay, Lesley, I've checked your blog every day for years, because I love your writing and the points you make, though I am just a huge lurker and never leave comments (okay, maybe once or twice). I pretty much always agree with you, as a fat female feminist (though I know you generally don't call yourself a feminist). I also adore your podcast!
And I am a geek – I am a fan of Penny Arcade, I read their comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (though I only read their blog posts probably 10% of the time), and being that I live in Seattle, I have gone to PAX Prime for the past six years.
And you know what? It didn't even occur to me to be offended at their original "Six Slave" comic when it came out…I guess it just never crossed my mind that people would think that the rape part was the part you were supposed to laugh at. Even after I read their apology comic, I still wasn't offended, nor after they came out with their dickwolf shirts. Dickwolf just struck me as a typical silly/clever Tycho turn of phrase. I thought that the whole joke was that the structure and mechanisms of video games place you in situations where you, as the hero, are compelled to do ridiculous things and act in ways that a true hero never would, which stand in opposition to your morals and the morals that a hero should have. As Tycho says in this post (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/2/2/matter-dickwolves/), that strip "is about how empty, amoral, and borderline vile electronic heroism actually is". Reading Amanda Marcotte's post on Pandagon (http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/how_not_to_reply_to_an_accusation_you_think_is_unfair/), her reaction in the first two bullet points is pretty much how I reacted.
Now that I read through some of the responses of the Penny Arcade guys, I do think that most of them were not as sensitive as they should have been, but…I really, really don't think they're rape apologists, or that that comic was pro-rape, or that it even really involved something that I would call a "rape joke". As Amanda said, "I did not think this was a 'rape joke' in the classic sense of the term, which is a joke where the punch line expresses the idea that raping is awesome. The joke of the comic was that the moral universes painted in video games are often horrific in a way that contrasts with the light-hearted nature of gaming. That strikes me as a perfectly appropriate thing to make fun of, tame even." All of that said, though, I will definitely be mulling this over…
Thanks for being reasonable. At this point, I can't help but feel it isn't about Mike and Jerry not understanding the issue, but refusing to admit to a mistake. And having people on both sides yelling as loudly as possible doesn't exactly encourage sincere apologies.
What I don't understand is how some of the feminist blogs I've read seem to want to turn this in the wrong direction under the pretense that they're educating people, or that since they're morally right (how could you disagree?), they are entitled to be as disrespectful as others have been to them. It seems hypocritical and self-righteous to me, to say the least. And well, if you want to get your point across to sensible people, if you actually intend to educate people on a subject, then the way to do that isn't by fighting fire with fire, or by pointing fingers, or by being rude. If you want the PA guys to be reasonable, then shouldn't it follow to treat them with the same amount of reason?
That's the tone argument.
So the solution is to be as relentless and abrasive as possible until people cave into your beliefs? Like I said, it's not as if you could disagree with a feminist on the concept of rape culture without making yourself look like an ass. It just makes the whole argument futile, and doesn't help anybody come to an UNDERSTANDING rather than a begrudging concession. I suppose all feminists are always right? After all, how could they be wrong?
This is the best 'open letter' to PA I've read so far; I wish it were different in two respects:
1) I wish it were shorter
2) I wish you would extend the olive branch
People seem to spend an inordinate amount of time telling PA that they fucked up, how much they fucked up, that they really shouldn't fuck up like that any more etc., and this post is no different. That said, every goddamn conflict resolution class/text/essay I've read starts with LISTENING, and very very few critics of PA on this issue have demonstrated a thorough understanding. From the letter above, I get the sense that you really get where they were coming from. If so, PLEASE LET THEM KNOW, and let all of the other PA fans know too. Replace one of the paragraphs that explains yet again how they are ignorant of all kinds of stuff with something along the lines of:
"We get it, it's bullshit that someone going to penny-arcade.com would ask you to apologize for an offensive comic, even if it triggered them. They came into your sandbox, which they should know touches on a number of difficult topics such as rape. It was satire, and you didn't promote rape culture with the original comic. Maybe it seems like nobody asking for apologies now stood up for you then, but we do."
"We get it, Mike's trigger warning was directed at people who expected you to add disclaimers to your comics, or to self-censor by avoiding difficult subject matter because someone somewhere might be offended, trigger, or otherwise be negatively impacted without your intent."
"We get it, the dickwolves shirt was intended as an F-You to people who willfully misunderstand your art, and possibly also struck you as absurd, dark humor."
"Unfortunately, just as the context of the original dickwolves joke was important in making it satire, the LACK of context for the trigger comment and T-Shirt meant that they came across to most people as, well, dick moves. You made fun of triggers, which makes people devalue the experience of being triggered, and then you released the dickwolves shirt into a social context where people were still feeling bruised about the trigger comment, so it looked to them like you were just pouring it on, not like you were defending your art. You know what? They were right to be offended at that point, and they deserve an apology."
Maybe you don't actually agree with my little outline, but if you do, even in part, please say it. It's SOOOO much easier to apologize to a sympathetic audience, and then we can all start recovering from this mess.
Oh, and I don't want to seem ungrateful or overly critical here. I agree with your open letter, I just think it could be better. How could I not? I'm an anonymous poster on the internet.
Why is it always the people on the receiving end of fuckuppery who are expected to 'be the bigger person', to extend the olive branch, to try to fix things?
"expected to 'be the bigger person'"
It's because we're fat.
I'm sorry, I couldn't help it.
Honestly, I think it's because, in a culture based on privilege and power negotiation, making education the responsibility of the oppressed party is a means of perpetuating the oppression. Because, you know, then you can dismiss the oppressed as being too angry, of not speaking the right language, of whatever the hell you want in the interest of not listening to them.
Because it's impossible, on a visceral level, to be friends with people who are treating you like an enemy, even if you want to/try to. It's not a 'means of perpetuating the oppression.' Sorry, but that strikes me as b.s. It's just a truth of nature that if someone attacks you for doing something that you were genuinely unaware was causing offense, you're not prepared to be sympathetic to them.
Seriously, the male privilege in the comments is pathetic. I realize this is your blog, Lesley, so you deal with it as you see fit, but what I'm hearing in the comments is a lot of "Oh, noes, why are the wimmins so ANGRY?" and "You aren't listening." How does it feel, dudebros, to be on the receiving end?
Heh, the recieving end of what, exactly?
How many guys do you think waste their time on the feminist blogosphere? Of those guys who do, how many do you think classify as "dudebros?"
"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
"If a feminist complains on a feminist blog, are any dudebros affected at all?"
Your answer is no, of course.
Alex shared what, in my view, transformed the original perpetrators' sustained behavior from reprehensible to irredeemable:
"Mike posted on Penny-Arcade that his wife and child had been threatened, which is reprehensible. No excuses can be made for it. But he uses language like "them," which is a time-honored way of declaring "the other side that happens to be wrong," and he equates the people upset about the rape joke with the people verbally taunting them, which is, in my opinion, ugly and dishonest."
This also goes back to what's mentioned above here WRT the 4chan trolls.
Those are the same trolls harassing Melissa, and Courtney Stanton, and other bloggers who are survivors.
Mike – I now believe deliberately – not only fails to make the distinction, but elides the two groups (the trolls and the bloggers).
So maybe you're seeing something I'm not, Lesley.
I don't hold out a lot of hope for that, though.
I don't know, I am really reluctant to give this guy any benefit of the doubt at this point. It seems to me that he only made the apology once people started making comments eluding to violence against his family. That is unacceptable. But this *entire* time Mike and his supporters have been saying that you can make jokes about everything/nothing is off-limits/it's just a joke/can't you take a joke, and AS SOON AS someone makes a joke with HIM and HIS FAMILY as the butt of the joke? Then it becomes, dude that's not cool. And that does not speak well of his character at all. Either we can make jokes about raping dickwolves, *and* raping his wife and children, or we can't make jokes about either. Mike seems to think that you can make jokes about dickwolves, and "team rape" but draws the line when the rape jokes finally affect the women he loves. That's fucking selfish and sleezy.
Also, I read his apology as a non-apology of the "I'm sorry you're offended" type, with a healthy dose of "WAAAAAH leave me alone!!" Again, doesn't speak well to his character.
It's going to take much, MUCH more than another shitty non-apology at PAX in order to make this situation right.
So much "yes" to your 1st paragraph.
"But this *entire* time Mike and his supporters have been saying that you can make jokes about everything/nothing is off-limits/it's just a joke/can't you take a joke, and AS SOON AS someone makes a joke with HIM and HIS FAMILY as the butt of the joke?"
1). The twitter comment was hardly a joke.
2). You mistake Mike's actions and those of his "supporters." Maybe you are unfamiliar with how the internet works, but no one can control the anonymous hordes of assholes who creep around on 4Chan and SomethingAwful. To assume that the disgusting things that have been said against Shakesville and others are endorsed by Mike is incorrect.
It would also be incorrect to assume that those are more than vacuous comments engineered specifically to hurt and maim. People like Shakesville like to pretend there is actually a misogynist behind each of those comments because it makes her look more correct and less like a conspiracy nut. What she doesn't realize is that she's getting the same treatment that 4chan gives Gene Simmons and Scientology.
"Either we can make jokes about raping dickwolves, *and* raping his wife and children, or we can't make jokes about either."
Right. There isn't a degree of difference between the dickwolf joke, which features as background information regarding a mythological animal that rapes mythological beings as part of a "hell unending," and making a joke about specific real people in the real world? Nevermind that the "joke" about raping Mike's family was not a "joke" but rather a direct threat?
Not that I disagree, though I expect your sentiment was actually sarcastic. I believe that a person is entitled to put whatever the fuck they want on the internet. And everyone is entitled to ignore it.
Now that I've gotten a better feel for both sides of this argument, I'm starting to feel for Mike (and Jerry) and their supporters in a different way:
Mike and Jerry were just acting in plain-old run of the mill ignorance. They were also misinformed. Think of it from their perspective, as in, how they saw events unfold:
1) They get complaints along the lines of "Your comic triggered me, so it promotes 'rape culture' and should not have been made. I will not return to PA until you take it down."
M&J think, A: the comic does not promote rape culture (and here we all seem to agree, at this point), and B: what long-term fan comes to PA without knowing that there will be satire involving all kinds of extreme content? Ergo, this fan is full of shit, and the 'triggers' and 'rape culture' they mention must also be shit. (this is a logical fallacy, but one we ALL commit from time to time)
2) PA's reaction is logically correct, though still ignorant of the meaning of 'rape culture'. They say, "The comic does not support rapists, and if you're dumb enough to come to a site that is known for using extremes subjects like rape in satire and expect not to be offended, then that's on you."
3) They get more flack, and at this point, maybe Mike and/or the PA fans decide to google Rape Culture. What are the two top links? Wikipedia and Shakesville.
The wiki article is very short, and the definition sounds very much like the "Video Games Make People Violent" fallacy.
Shakesville is a rant-fest. The definition of rape culture there is without boundary, and the vitriol level is mighty high. It puts topics like triggers and 'rape culture' in the hands of people who are the intellectual equivalents of Birthers. It's BAAAAD.
I had the benefit of reading the posts of cooler-headed feminists before I landed on Shakesville, but let me tell you: that place is a cesspool, and if I'd landed there first I'd have written off the whole 'rape culture' and trigger issue as well, which would have been VERY BAD for me, and anyone else I discussed these issues with.
The third link defines rape culture in the context of Ben Roethlisberger raping a hotel hostess. While accurate, it's hard to connect that to a joke that doesn't promote rape culture anyway.
The fourth link finally gives a solid definition: http://www.marshall.edu/wcenter/?page_id=295
4) At that point, they start mocking triggers, and making shirts, and acting on their ignorance, and that's all on them. We get why they made those mistakes, and they are still mistakes, and we're asking for an apology.
I'm not excusing what they did, it was still wrong, but the context makes me much more sympathetic: they were attacked by a group of extremists, and then when attempting to mock the extremists they ended up being really offensive to another, larger group of people, who fire back, and now Mike must be thinking "how can these people be in the same camp as Shakesville? Are they all nuts?!
Mike and Jerry weren't being plain old 'ignorant', they were ignorant AND misinformed. Their strawman came pre-packaged
I think that Jerry's latest post on the subject backs up this assessment. He says that he thought that dialogue between himself and the Shakesville crowd was impossible. I agree with him: I thought the same thing when I read the site, so while I've commented on a number of other blogs, I didn't even try to comment there. It seems like a complete waste of bytes.
I'm not sure how things could have gone differently, but I do think that in the absence of Shakesville, this mess would never have happened, and in an ideal world we'd all call them out for their role in this debacle too.
I'm not trying to detract from the earnestness of your comment, but the phrase "a complete waste of bytes" made me laugh out loud. (I'm an IT major.) I own a ThinkGeek tee shirt that says "There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't." 😀
Erm, anyway. I'm quite an awkward geek, so I'll just go back to watching "The Big Bang Theory." (I identify with Sheldon, in case you were wondering.)
"but I do think that in the absence of Shakesville, this mess would never have happened"
I think you're right, but not for the reasons you think. Mike is the one who decided to go over to Shakesville and stir shit in the comments. Just as he's free to make PA the space he wants it to be, Shakesville has a right to self-determination. It's a site with links all over it to the sort of feminist thought they're interested there and with "101" pages.
And Mike ignored their rules and got into a brawl. Which I get, people get hot under the collar. Then with some time past he takes swipes at the concepts of trigger warnings over on PA. And then the shirts and the drawings etc etc etc.
Sure, Shakesville and its participants might have pushed over the first domino with their attention and commentary. But Mike and Jerry had multiple opportunities to stop kicking the can down the road. I don't know that they even ever needed to do more than the lamest of non-apologies ("we're sorry if you're offended") if they'd just dropped it.
It's a hard lesson to get; I can trace my own learning of it to a friend of mine who didn't like a pet name of sorts I was using. The second time she called me out on it I said I just didn't get why it bugged her given X, Y and Z. She responded "isn't it enough that it does?"
Mike and Jerry didn't have to agree or even understand. They just had to accept that some folks were put out or flat-out hurt and stop picking at it. They didn't, and nobody at Shakesville forced them to keep it up.
SOOOO true. Even the die-hard PA fans I know wish that Mike had just kept his mouth shut.
Another feminist PA fan here, loved your post so much. I've been surprised throughout this whole thing about how tone-deaf the stuff coming from PA has been. Makes me feel like the arbiters of geek culture (not just M&J) have decided that it's not *for me*, even though I'm a geek too, and that feeling sucks.
BUT, it took time for me to understand stuff like rape culture and how we're all soaking in it. And your post reminded me that it's worth it to give people a chance to learn, and to make things right. Hoping that a more inclusive culture is what comes out of all this!
Hi Lesley,
A beautifully and clearly written post.
I agree "Talking about these issues is hard. It's hard for me and it's hard for you", but you know, now I'm not so young and silly and in my 20s and thinking with my dick (to exaggerate for effect) I don't mind "hard" and think that these kinds of issues need to be raised and debated and the pain should be shared. Thank you for holding your head up and just doing it, you're far braver than I am. God knows it is easy to retreat into one's privilege and avoid any debate or questioning of one's mindset.
I lived in east Asia for many years and could see many of the 'unenlightened' attitudes there but it was a much worse shock coming back to the West and seeing clearly the heinous attitudes to women held by many here (and this is in a West that prides itself of its "enlightenment and progress") and the sexism that is still clearly embedded in our culture. I see it all around now, and can't deny it, and it frankly makes my bloody world (swearing cos it makes me angry) less pleasant too. I now have an inkling of what women and minorities put up with everyday. It isn't nice, and as you pointed out above it makes the world a less pleasant place for all.
I also appreciated your description of Shakesville too. I've read some Shakesville posts before, and as a white male, they're not for the faint-hearted :-), so knowing more of the context of the site beforehand definitely assists in one's understanding.
When your [male] experience has been privileged for your whole life, it's like a pair of cultural blinders — you can't even conceive that the world and the people in it extend beyond the narrow field that you can see.
This speaks to Michael Kimmel's "Men and Women's Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise":
"[…] women's studies has made men visible. […] Women's studies has demonstrated that gender is one of the axes around which social life is organized, one of the most crucial building blocks of our identities. […] By making women visible, women's studies decentered men as the unexamined, disembodied authorial voice of the academic canon and showed that men, as well as women, are utterly embodied, their identities are as socially constructed as those of women. […] American men have come to think of ourselves as genderless, in part because gender privilege affords us the luxury of ignoring the centrality of gender. […] Gender is about power. Just because both masculinity and femininity are socially constructed does not mean that they are equivalent, that there are no dynamics of power and privilege in operation."
That is a pretty awesome set of quotes. I meant to say earlier that I really like how Lesley put the [male] in square brackets, to make it clear that this is true of any life-long experience.
Lesley (and any of her apparently awesome readers),
I have two questions I have about rape culture that don't seem to be clearly answered by, well, anything I've found on the internet so far. I am hoping that you can help me to find answers.
1) What are the boundaries of rape culture?
What I mean is, after reading a few definitions, I came up with the idea that rape culture is a subset of any larger culture, and defines how that culture views rape, the act, the assailants, the victims, justice, the path to justice, etc. By that definition, I could also isolate "marriage culture" as the ways that different societies or supercultures deal with marriage, marriage roles, divorce etc.
By this definition, though, there are multiple 'rape cultures', and some could be net positive, i.e. a society in which rape and the perpetrators are universally condemned, and victims are respected and cared for.
Examples given on various blogs, though, seem to take a different tack. I get the sense that the definition is more restricted to anything that perpetuates the idea that rape is normal, and does not include the healthy ways in which a society or culture at large deals with rape.
If that's the case, then it is from there that my second question arises:
2) Do all incidents of rape culture, by virtue of being part of a greater whole, lead to increased incidents of rape.
and I guess, closely tied to 2, but I don't want to lump too much together, there's a third question:
3) Do all incidents of rape culture, by virtue of being part of a greater whole, lead to increased fear and pain among rape victims and people who see themselves as potential rape victims.
In the interest of full disclosure, the thing that spawned this line of questions in my own head, is the fact that I FEEL like I'm hearing two incompatible arguments, particularly at shakesville, but also elsewhere:
1) Accusing PA of promoting rape culture isn't the same as saying that they encouraged rapists.
2) Promoting the rape culture leads to increased incidence of rape.
It's possible that this has framed my questions in a way that is unhelpful, and if so, I'm open to re-framing. Well, at least I think I am.
"I FEEL like I'm hearing two incompatible arguments, particularly at shakesville, but also elsewhere:
1) Accusing PA of promoting rape culture isn't the same as saying that they encouraged rapists.
2) Promoting the rape culture leads to increased incidence of rape."
I would change #2 to say "promoting rape culture creates a climate that facilitates rapists." It makes life easier for people who would rape, it makes life harder for the victims. I would argue that facilitating, isn't the same as encouraging.
However, I can see why you are confused, these two points do seem to be in conflict, even after my adjustment.
I think it is important that one consider the perspective of the feminists trying to make this argument. If I or any other feminist said that by making rape jokes via webcomic, The PA guys were encouraging more men to rape women, most of people would find that claim ridiculous. There would be endless jokes. No one would want to discuss rape culture, they'd just be talking about the crazy feminists who thought jokes caused rape. I can actually hear the jokes in my head now, coming from people I consider friends.
Feminists have a lot of experience at making points so that people who aren't really interested will listen. Sometimes this means moderating claims.
Most importantly ONE website is like a drop in the rape culture ocean. It is impossible to tell whether their actions would result in additional people being willing to rape. Until we've winnowed it down to a rape culture pond, it will be impossible to claim that the actions of any individual are really encouraging rape.
In the end, the people who cause rape, are rapists. The best thing the rest of us can do, is make life harder for them.
Thanks for your response. I see your point about the difference between facilitating and encouraging rapists; there is a significant distinction there. At the same time, both still lead to more incidents of rape, and because of that, the two arguments are still in conflict.
I also see why feminists would be careful NOT to say "PA's comic lead to more rapists", and why they would say "PA's comic promotes rape culture." The idea that how a debate is framed is critical is very sound.
However, BECAUSE feminists (myself included) also trace a logical line from promoting rape culture to higher incidence of rape, RC => IR, I think it's also valid for respondents to such criticism to re-frame the argument in terms of that conclusion. So, Shakesville makes the allegation:
Comic => ++ Rape Culture
PA takes this given:
++ Rape Culter => Incidence of Rape
and re-frames the argument as
Comic => ++ Incidence of Rape
And then they reject that argument. Re-framing the argument without saying that's what you're doing is confusing, but the logic still seems sound, if less concise.
Incidentally, while talking with some friends about this issue, I found a good introduction to the concept of rape culture. In Malcom Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" he talks about the NY subway system, and how crime was rampant on it. The transit authority finally managed to reduce crime by… cleaning up the graffiti. In essence, the fact that the stations and trains had been visibly vandalized gave the subway system an aura of crime, that made people feel like "this is a place where people commit crimes and get away with it." The atmosphere of the stations facilitated (and in some ways encouraged) crime. Once they changed that atmosphere, crime went down.
"In the end, the people who cause rape, are rapists. The best thing the rest of us can do, is make life harder for them."
Shinobi, this is the best fortune cookie sized reply to "why what you say matters" I have ever read. And you can apply it to so many things. Thank you for putting it so well!
I just find it so defeating that everyone accepts without question that what P-A did is wrong.
P-A invoked the concept of rape, and, like magic, it spurred on the rape culture. Then when the good folk came out to accuse them of rapecraft, ready to burn Mike and Jerry at the stake if they didn't renounce their ways, they mocked the concept of propagating rape culture. Surely, only a rape protector would do that.
If I ever say the words: "She was asking for it." And because of that someone calls me a "rape apologist." I would feel shame.
If I make a joke about rape that is unexpected, but in no way approving, and someone calls me a "rape apologist." I'm afraid that I'm going to mock them, for that is mock-worthy.
You can't just go around accusing every person who jokes in and around rape of rape apology. Shit, Wanda Sykes has a ten-minute standup routine about "detachable pussies" that is focused on rape. It deteriorates the strength of the accusation — in a "boy who cried wolf" sorta way — if people are throwing that term around at anyone who makes them uncomfortable.
I'm simply in the camp that feels P-A still hasn't done anything wrong, and that it's actually more disgusting to accuse someone who is completely innocent of being pro-rape.
This isn't how you convince people to hear reason. You don't accuse them when they've done nothing wrong, and then wear them down until they sign a confession that they don't really believe in.
What Lesley said. I think it's actually pretty clear from Lesley's post above, and the comment of mine that she approved, that Lesley and others agree that the original PA comic is totally OK.
Then again, I posted my comment because I felt like this was a safe place to say that, so maybe I understand why you took the time to make your post. It's nice to get that out.
(Thanks Lesley!)
I think that at this point the only people still mad at the comic are those who were mad about it in the first place. You aren't going to change their minds. But PA's reaction, no matter how understandable given their position, is still unacceptable to many, and they can either own up to it and win some respect back, or just ignore it and possibly make things worse. Either way, they've lost the faith of some PA fans because of their actions, and because of their inaction in preventing the troll problem from escalating to the point that it did.
Not in my habit to comment blogpost but yours is truly excelent and reflect pretty much my own opinion (I admit the second comic made me laugh but, on the contrary to the first one, I totaly see why someone would feel offended by it and I respect that).
This whole contreversy left me conflicted as both a gamer and as someone who was raised by feminist parents and has read some french feminists work from the 60′ and 70′: on one hand, the shirt and the whole twitter debacle were pretty assholish from the guys at penny arcade (but at the same time more in a "we are nerds and don't understand why you call us horrible names" fashion than woman-hating or what not) but on the other hand, I felt, entering Shakesville, that I stepped in a strange bizarro world where stereotypes about angry, humorless feminists became reality. To be clear, this is not excusing the horrible stuff some of the 4chan and PA-crowd did: no one deserve this sort of treatment and G&T should have put a stop to it right away, or atleast try to. Of course, I also totaly agree when you say that the people at Shakesville are not monster, it would be pretty hypocritical of me to make this argument in favor of the PA guys and exclude the other side.
That being said, the sad true about people is that sometimes, they are wrong (and maybe I'm about to be to, who knows?). I get that Shakesville is intended to be a safe space and not for everyone, but if this is the case, why pick up a fight openly on the great wide internet? Perhaps this is some sort of language barrier but for me the first thing about being a safe space is that it's secluded from the outer world. And it's fine and a good thing that such space exist, even online, but if I go and yell at someone then retreat to a public bench declaring that this is a safe place and he can't respond because of it, it's not going to hold much weight in the discussion. Right now I picture the people at Shakesville like the french in Holy Grail, but without the great wall between them and the attackers.
To be able to critic art is important, both for free speech and for art itself, but so is an artist's right to answer those critics if he/she feels they are unwarranted or wrong. In this case, the rebuttal happened to be in very poor taste, afterall everyone make mistake. But I got the vibe reading the comment from Shakesville (the blogpost are ok, even if I disagree with most of it) that even the act of objecting was an aggression in itself. This left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and this is why I'm glad there's actually people in the feminist blog community that have a more nuanced point of view and are open to debate.
To summarize this wall of text in horrible english (for which I'm sorry): I feel that, as you more eloquantly said, the PA guys faulted by ignorance and not by malice and that Shakesville was wrong to pick up a fight publicly if they wanted to keep their space safe, and that they are not shining a positive light on the feminist community right now. You, amongst others, have on the contrary presented arguments and viewpoints which challenged me and reassured me on the state of the woman right's movement. For that I am thankfull and I'd shake your hand if we were not an ocean apart.
As far as I know, there was no "fight" picked on the great wide internet–a post went up on Shakesville calling out PA, Mike went over there to post some really inflammatory and baiting comments, got annoyed with how he was received, and made the T-shirt. You tell me who picked a fight.
I don't think critiquing a piece of pop-culture, e.g Penny Arcade, is "picking a fight" in fact Melissa's original post on the PA comic was something like 120 words. It sooo wasn't the big story of the day. As far as being "humorless feminists" — you know, I don't care about that. I happen to think Melissa is hilarious. But Shakesville is a place where people can go and express exactly how angry we are, how tired we are of being marginalized, how damn fed up we are with having our entire experience dismissed out of hand. Many of us are dog-tired from putting on the god-damn happy face in our day to day lives and Shakes exists! A place where we can say, whenever we need to, exactly how much it sucks.
That is the most positive light I can see, a feminist safe space where YOU CAN BE MAD and not have someone tell you to "cheer up" or "don't take it so seriously!"
Correction – it wasn't even Melissa McEwan writing the post. It was a guestpost by another Shakesville regular. So. I sort of feel doubly bad at the amount of shit heaped upon her and her space in recent days.
I have a question:
Why do the topics of rape and rape culture keep creeping into discussions when everyone has agreed that 90% of the problem was the immature handling of things by the PA people. In reality, Dickwolfgate has nothing to do with rape, but everything to do with one demographic being misunderstood and mistreated by another.
Because rape and rape culture are the reasons why PA's immature handling of the situation matters so much. It's not that the original joke was objectively horrific. It's that dismissing the concerns of those who've experienced rape and those who live with the fear of rape is a *huge* part of rape culture. The PA guys aren't being jerks in a vacuum – you can't separate their behaviour from its context. Those affected by rape have their voices disrespected and ignored at every turn (because even when we as a society manage to concur that rape is terrible, we quibble like hell over what *counts* as rape, and what she was wearing, and did she kiss him, and did she scream for help, and blah fucking blah).
The PA guys had an opportunity to act decently, and instead they basically went with the lousy, stinking status quo. This wasn't a one-off – we're talking about a demographic that is *constantly* misunderstood and mistreated. And that's why it's particularly important to behave with maturity and compassion when you're dealing with a topic like rape.
(Uh, that should have been a reply to dudebro. Fail.)
The simple thing of it is, if the PA guys were to always consider who they might offend with a strip, they wouldn't be able to do what they do. They need to have full creative freedom and not have to worry about possibly triggering someone's PTSD or causing some kind of shitstorm.
You could argue that that reasoning at-best only covers the very first comic, and not their behaviour from then on. I disagree. As a creator specializing in edgy and controversial content, when someone takes offense to something you create, you basically have two options: 1) ignore it, or 2) up the ante.
Apologizing simply isn't, and shouldn't be, in the cards. If you do, you only set yourself up for attacks by other groups you no doubt will offend in the future.
I know it's a cop-out to say "if you don't like it, don't read it" but the simple truth of the matter is that if you suffer from any kind of PTSD (whether brought on by surviving a rape, witnessing the murder of a loved one, being involved in an assault, or whatever) and find that certain content can be triggering, you probably shouldn't consume envelope-pushing content like Penny Arcade.
Hi Lesley, thanks for replying.
I believe I understood your post. I just disagree that they should apologize for any of their behaviour during this entire ordeal. My second and third paragraphs above sums up my feelings on the matter, and they apply to everything that's transpired from August 11th, 2010 until the present day.
With that I'm not saying they couldn't have handled the whole thing better. They absolutely could have. From my perspective it seems their biggest fault was being ignorant of just how serious an offense they had committed in the eyes of some of their readership.
Had they realized that, I don't think they would've progressed further than that original strip, and I think they would've picked option #1 above (ignoring it) as opposed to option #2 (upping the ante.)
So, yeah, they're guilty of being ignorant and they're guilty of continuing to upping the ante when they should've fallen back to option #1 once they realized what was happening. But apologize? Not a chance.
If they were to acknowledge their mistakes and apologize to those who are attacking them, I really think they have no choice but to dial the tone of their entire comic strip back a bit.
As it stands, I already fear this whole affair may have had a negative impact on their creative output, and that future strips from them may be coloured by them wanting to avoid causing this kind of ruckus again.
And I'm sure that can be seen as a victory of sorts for one side of this fight, but I for one think that's very unfortunate.
You really don't think they could say something like "We stand by the original joke, but we realise we could've handled this much better despite our disagreement with the criticisms aimed at us. For that we apologise. We also don't condone the cruel and threatening behaviour of some of our fans"? That wouldn't involve conceding the point at all, but I think it would go a *long* way towards rectifying the situation.
And I don't honestly see that their creative output is the holiest of holies and should never be affected by the world at large. Creativity doesn't come purely from within, unsullied by outside influences, and it doesn't exist just for the creator – it also exists for the audience, who have no obligation to either like it or keep quiet. It's not a disaster if a creator takes feedback on board and changes as a result. Creativity evolves, and so it should. Change isn't inherently negative. Even limitations aren't always negative. Every behaviour has limitations – there's simply no such thing as "full creative freedom", because humans set rules for themselves all the time, without necessarily even being aware of it.
Lesley, I think you may be missing part of the point in this whole debacle. Seldom is the possibility for civil discourse obliterated as quickly as when one side employs pathos-laden, sanctimonious arguments that claim the moral high ground. Indeed, why respond with civility to someone who is apt to not only dismiss your reasoning, but also deride your character and worldview? I recall a few particularly vituperative postings from Shakesville and its ilk, becoming harsher in tone when the authors of the comic refused to kowtow and recant their work.
Indeed, you do not really strike a very conciliatory tone for an open letter that purports to extend an olive branch; you dismiss the authors of PA as ignorant and "dudes," lacking some special understanding on the nature of human empathy that you imply you must explain to them. They are wearing blinders, and you claim that you might deign to show them the way. In my opinion this is no way to approach someone who you would seriously like to reconcile with, and gloating, halfhearted demands for apologies are almost invariably met with scorn.
By your own analysis, people are defined by the circumstances of their upbringing and life; such things shape much if not all of our outlook on society – in particular, which issues we prioritize. You are no doubt aware that radical feminism, which typically identifies the systematic oppression of women as one of the most crucial issues facing human society, is only one of many schools of thought in terms of the power-structure in human society. As a product of my upbringing, I personally favor theory with a Marxist tone that focuses on the interactions between different social classes. What I ask you to remember is that these other worldviews do exist, and feminist theory and the related issues are not crucially important to everyone, nor ought your fixation upon said issues to make them so.
While I think any decent human being can identify rape as a horrific crime, there are a number of other crimes and atrocities that this species is known to commit. Murder, torture of almost every form imaginable, enslavement, systematic genocide (remember genocide includes not only murder, but also extirpation of a culture or nation in various ways) What is troubling is that feminists sometimes give rape a special position among these crimes.
Indeed, while I see many complaints about rape culture, I see none in your community about the culture of violence, the culture of oppression, the culture of torture, the culture of murder. All of these things appear in the trappings of our modern societies, oftentimes becoming the subject of entertainment and humor. Just about all of these subjects have been referenced multiple times in PennyArcade. So, why was The Sixth Slave the only comic to disturb you and your coterie? Is rape really special, and is it defensible to object to oblique references to rape while laughing at direct jokes on bestiality, pedophilia and mortal illness?
You are of course free to object to humor you find offensive. You are not, however, free to impinge upon the liberties of other people by attempting to coerce and scorn them into recanting their work and apologizing for it; for such behavior you will be vilified, and trolled vigorously. Ultimately, you cannot expect the internet to conform to your community's idea of political correctness. Remember that you aren't without those blinders you mentioned in your letter, Lesley.


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At Genomes Unzipped, Joe Pickrell has an important post up, Why publish science in peer-reviewed journals?:
The recent announcement of a new journal sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust generated a bit of discussion about the issues in the scientific publishing process it is designed to address—arbitrary editorial decisions, slow and unhelpful peer review, and so on. Left unanswered, however, is a more fundamental question: why do we publish scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals to begin with? What value does the existence of these journals add? In this post, I will argue that cutting journals out of scientific publishing to a large extent would be unconditionally a good thing, and that the only thing keeping this from happening is the absence of a "killer app".
It works for physics, computer science, and to a great extent the social sciences. Why not the biosciences?


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It sounds so dreary, doesn't it? You sit in your wheelchair and a nurses' aide tosses you a balloon, which you bat back at her, and you volley back and forth several times.
Well, let me tell you how wonderful the balloon toss is in the Alzheimers unit! The first benefit is simply that it wakes the patients up! More than that, it even requires them to become alert. It gets them interacting with another human being. It makes them practice their eye-hand coordination. It is mild upper-body exercise, with arms in the air. And it's fun for them! They nearly all smile while playing this simple game.
When the aide finished and departed, I picked up the balloon and continued the game, batting it around with the various patients in the dayroom. It was the most fun I've had with my dad in years! We kept it up until the young exercise dude came in, sipping his mid-morning coffee and chewing gum, which he removed from his mouth when one old lady began chanting, "No gum, no gum, no gum," about a hundred times.
"Anybody know what day this is?" he asked in his cheeriest voice.
Nobody did.
"It's Tuesday."
"Really?" someone said.
"Fancy that," said another. "Tuesday."
"And what month is it?" the young man continued.
"Well, close. It does start with "M". It's May."
"Well, well, May."
"And the year is two thousand eight," said the exercise dude.
"Two thousand eight," somebody repeated in an effort to remember it.
"And this weekend there is going to be a holiday. It is going to be Memorial Day. Can anybody tell me what we are supposed to remember on Memorial Day?"
"Two thousand eight!" said Dad, enthusiastically.
Oh, well.
The exercises went well. The anti-gum lady chanted, "Please keep it short, keep it short, keep it short," and he did, fifteen minutes.
Mom was discharged last night and is now in the same building with Dad, one floor down from him, in the rehab unit, until she feels stronger. Rossi, their private duty health care aide, takes them to visit each other. Mom, who'd had a manicure and pedicure immediately before her surgery, has now been to the hair salon on her same floor and had a shampoo and set and feels much happier as a result. Last I saw her, she was entertaining a ministeress from her church who had arrived and was chatting with her.
I'm catching a train for home in about an hour, God willing.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Balloon Toss with the Demented
It sounds so dreary, doesn't it? You sit in your wheelchair and a nurses' aide tosses you a balloon, which you bat back at her, and you volley back and forth several times.
1 comments:
- Just Mairs said...
Oh my what a hoot! I'll have to try the balloon game next time I'm visiting the nursing home. Reminds me quite a bit of Discovery Basketball:
- May 24, 2008 at 5:45 PM


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Help Desk Management Release
|1. The bundled set of Help Desk Management related Deliverables that acts as the Project Management unit of delivery for a Help Desk Management Organization and as measure for its Solutions, including but not limited to Products, Services, Systems, Assets, Applications, Software, Devices and Capabilities, all while adhering to a defined Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
2. An aggregated, controlled, repeatable, uniquely identifiable and versioned set of Help Desk Management related Changes that are intended to be applied or have been applied to an existing construct or set of constructs, such as but not limited to Environments, Organizations, Systems, Processes, Procedures and/or Artifacts, and which are intended to follow a defined Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for the purpose of delivery to intended Help Desk Management specific Stakeholders.
3. The term Software Developers and Product Developers use to represent a packaged and versioned Help Desk Management deliverable, represented as a controlled set of Changes that are intended to be deployed to a final consumer or environment for the purpose of utilization by some downstream Resource, Organization or System.
4. A term used by some Infrastructure and Support Organizations or Resources to describe what is more regularly referred to as a deployment (i.e. a set of Infrastructure Changes) of a Help Desk Management related Product or Software Release.
Read More
|1) The Semantic Root Noun for this term is: Help Desk
2) Semantically Related Terms: The "Help Desk Management Glossary"
3) The Help Desk Management Home Page covers much more about other related terms and concepts associated with this term or phrase.


text:
Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to Definition Of A Thug Nigga by 2Pac. Please check back for more 2Pac lyrics.
Artist: 2Pac
Album: R U Still Down? (Remember Me)
"Nobody's, closing me out of my business" (repeat 2X)
[2Pac] My definition of a thug nigga
"Nobody's, closing me out of my business"
Verse One: 2Pac
I played the cards I was given, thank God I'm still livin
Pack my nine til it's time to go to prison
As I'm bailin down the block that I come from, still gotta pack a gun
Case some young motherfuckers wanna play dumb
I guess I live life forever jugglin
But I'll be hustlin til the early mornin cause I'm strugglin
Like drinkin liquor make the money come quicker
Gettin pages from my bitch it's time to dick her
I ain't in love with her, I just wanna be the one to hit her
Drop off and let the next nigga get her
That's the way it goes, it's time to shake a hoe, make the dough
Break a hoe when it's time to make some mo'
I keep my finger on the trigger of my Glock
Ridin down the block lickin shots at the punk-ass *cops*
And spittin game through my mobile phone
The type of shit to get them hoes to bone
My Definition of a Thug Nigga
Chorus: (various samples)
"Tis the season, to be servin" "What you doin?"
"Mob-mobbin like a motherfucker" --> Snoop Doggy Dogg
(repeat 3X)
"Tis the season, to be servin" (scratched by Warren G)
Verse Two: 2Pac
Well I roll with a crew of zoo niggaz
They're quick to pulle a nine when it's time do niggaz
Comin through like I'm two niggaz, a true nigga fuck a Zig Zag
Roll me a blunt and pass that brew nigga
I'm drivin drunk on the freeway, so take it ea-sy
Lookin for a new face to skeeze me
Everybody's lookin for a nut but I'm searchin for the big bucks
Give a fuck, rather die than be stuck
in a one-room shack, and, kickin back
Daydreamin with the nine in my lap (huh)
So how's that from the mind of a Thug Nigga
Bought a fo'-five cause I heard that the slug's bigger
Figure the first motherfucker to jump'll find hisself
gettin swept off his feet by the pump
I put that on my moms, word to the motherfuckin trigger
Before I go broke I'll be a drug dealer, a Thug Nigga
Verse Three: 2Pac
Short than a motherfucker snatched up by one-time
Make a phone call and be back to ball by lunchtime
So here we go, we in the inner city
I keep my hand on my gat and stay cool, my attitude is shitty
Niggaz don't like me cause I'm makin ends
Roll in a Benz and I blaze a blunt, cause I'm all in
And any nigga trying to take what I got'll
hafta deal with the sixteen-shot Glock (huh)
So here we go, I can't be faded
Happy in the motherfucker, finally made it
Got my money in my pocket, finger on the trigger
And I ain't takin shit from no niggaz
I'm just tryin to make some money right
Put some motherfuckin food in my tummy right
I'm feelin good like I'm supposed to, ready to ball
Find a spot and we can serve em all
My Definition of a Thug Nigga
Outro: (various samples)
"Tis the season, to be servin"
"Mobbin like a motherfucker, every single day" --> Snoop Doggy Dogg
[2Pac] My Definition of a Thug Nigga
(repeat 3X)
"Tis the season, to be servin" (scratched by Warren G)
"Nobody's, closing me out of my business" (continually scratched to near end)
Check it out!
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2Pac - Don't You Trust Me? Lyrics
2Pac - I Wonder If Heaven Got A Ghetto (Original and Hip-Hop Version) Lyrics
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2Pac - Ready 4 Whatever Lyrics


text:
Re: v6: cursor behaviour with arrow keys
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg77020] Re: v6: cursor behaviour with arrow keys
- From: Andrew Moylan <andrew.j.moylan at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 05:31:23 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <firstname.lastname@example.com>
On May 28, 3:31 pm, Will Robertson <wsp... at gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I seem to be having troubles with the Google Groups interface to this > newsgroup. Third time's the charm. > > I'm running Mathematica v6 on Windows XP sp2, and I get very weird > behaviour when using the up/down arrow keys that is quite > inconsistent. For example, at the moment, I can open a new document, > paste in the following text to create a cell: > > a := 1 > b := 1 > c := 1 > d := 1 > e := 1 > f := 1 > g := 1 > > evaluate it by hitting enter, then click at the end of line "a", hit > the down arrow twice -- and the cursor will jump to the end of line > "g". Hitting up twice brings the cursor to the beginning of line "f", > and then up again takes the cursor back *down* to the end of line "g". > This cycle will then repeat with further up arrow presses. > > Then pressing down to exit the cell, then left to get the cursor back > to the end of line "g" resets the cursor behaviour, and I can use any > combination of up and down arrow presses to move one line up and down > as I would expect. But then clicking the mouse to move the cursor to > the end of any of the lines makes a double tap of either the up and > down arrow keys take the cursor to the end of the cell, rather than > just up or down a single line. > > I know it's hard to describe here, but I don't have the facilities > here to make a video screen grab. > > It's all very strange. Can anyone else confirm this behaviour, or is > it somehow specific to my machine? > > Many thanks, > Will Robertson > University of Adelaide Confirmed. That is really weird. I'm very curious as to how this bug came about; I hope someone figures it out.


text:
HARTFORD — It's questionable whether lawmakers will pass any legislation this year that would place additional restrictions on the public release of information from homicides as part of an effort to protect victims' privacy following the Newtown school massacre.
The Judiciary Committee failed to act Wednesday on one of two competing bills that created a new procedure for allowing the public to view and seek copies of images of homicide victims. It also barred the release of records of minor witnesses to a drug offense, sexual assault or a violent crime.
Rep. Gerald Fox, the panel's co-chairman, said there weren't enough votes to support the bill.
Meanwhile, a similar bill is still sitting on the Senate's calendar. But that proposal also would restrict the release of 911 calls relating to a homicide and include a description of the victim's impaired physical condition, something Senate President Donald Williams opposes.
Fox said he would like to see some kind of a compromise reached before the legislature's looming May 7 adjournment, but he's uncertain whether that will happen.
"I'd like to see some finality to it," Fox said. "If there's a way to work it through this year, I think that would be great for all involved."
There was an expectation the General Assembly this year would build upon a law enacted last year that blocked the release of crime scene photos, video and film depicting the condition of all homicide victims — not just those in Newtown — if the information could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy of the victim or victim's family members. That same law created a task force that ultimately recommended that lawmakers restrict access not only to the crime scene photos of homicide victims, but also 911 tapes. The task force suggested creating a system that would allow the public to inspect the materials.
Last year's law stemmed from concerns voiced by the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims who worried that pictures of their dead loved ones would appear on the Internet. The law also prevented the release of internal police recordings describing a homicide victim's condition. But that restriction is set to expire May 7 unless the legislature takes action in the coming days.
Rep. DebraLee Hovey, R-Monroe, a member of the task force whose district includes part of Newtown, said some of the victims' families won't be upset if the General Assembly doesn't pass a new bill this year. She said the ban on releasing the crime scene photos of homicide victims — a key concern for the families — will still remain in place.
"For my constituency, I think their feeling is, doing nothing is better than doing something that's even worse or makes them more vulnerable I guess," said Hovey, referring to the proposals for allowing members of the public to view the materials and seek copies.
Hovey said she met months ago with workers and others affected by the school shooting, and they appeared emotionally prepared for the possibility that the internal police recordings might be released as of May 7.
While some members of Hovey's Newtown constituency might not mind if no action is taken this session, Hovey said she knows some urban lawmakers still want legislation enacted this year.
If the bill that sits on the Senate calendar passes, it doesn't mean the issue is finished. It requires the General Assembly's Program Review and Investigations Committee to study all aspects of victim privacy. They would have to recommend legislative changes by Jan. 1, 2015.


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Capital, transport hub, as well as the prefecture's commercial and administrative centre. The city is studded with archaeological sites and is full of life, with charming pedestrian zones, modern shopping centres, cafès and bars.
The prefecture of Arta contains imposing mountains covered in spruces, fertile plains, roaring rivers and lagoons with important ecosystems. It is one of Greece's most beautiful regions and is located between the Tzoumerka mountain range and the Amvrakikos gulf.
It makes up the north-eastern part of Epirus. The varied scenery of the prefecture combines the beauty and harshness of the Greek mountains with the gentle and shallow beaches of the gulf of Amvrakikos and the fertile valleys of the Arahthos river.
Built on the edge of the Peranthi hill and the banks of the Arahthos river (which provided irrigation for ancient Amvrakia), Arta is undeniably known for its internationally famous bridge. According to the myth, the foreman's wife lays in its foundation. In 168 B.C., after the city was pillaged by the Romans, its residents fled to Nikopolis. It has been capital many times, while as ancient Amvrakia it was capital of the kingdom belonging to Pyrrhus, the king of the Molossians.
In 1204, it became the capital of the Principality or Despotate of Epirus, where it flourished. It is located 370 km NW of Athens (via Rio-Antirio) and 444 km SW of Thessaloniki.
At the famous bridge of Arta, known for its unique architecture, which connects the banks of the Arahthos river. The bridge was built in the period of the Despotate of Epirus and is 145 m long.
At the portions of the ancient Amvrakia wall fortifications.
At the Byzantine castle (13th century), where general Makriyiannis and his men were imprisoned by the Turks during the Revolution of 1821.
At the municipal open theatre, near the castle's entrance, where the clock tower stands.
At the Skoufa Folklore Museum, in the western part of the bridge, in an 1864 privately-owned neoclassical building.
At the Skoufa Museum of History.
At the National Resistance sqaure. A place with shops, cafès and bars, where the area's residents gather.
At the church of the patron saint Aghia Theodora, an important Byzantine monument (13th century).
At the church of Aghios Vasilios, a single-navel basilica (14th century).
At the church of Panagia Parigoritisa (13th century), one of the most important Byzantine churches in Greece. Its refectory houses the city's archaeological collection.
At the "Skoufas" club library.
At the public exhibition centre.
At the "Dioni" convention centre.
At the Fail Tzami, an almshouse from the 15th century, surrounded by age-old trees.
At the forest of the Peranthi hill, where a tourism stand operates.
At the Monastery of Kato Panagia (13th century), on the foot of the hill.
At Gramenitsa, 4 km N, amidst the olive groves and citrus trees, with a wonderful view of Arta. A the village of Vlaherna you can visit the church of Panagia tis Vlahernas from the 12th century B.C., containing two graves which are believed to hold the remains of Epirus Despots. The picturesque artificial lake of Pournariou was created near the area's hydro-electric plant.
At Peta, 8 km E, a village with traditional houses, built amphitheatrically on a hill with a view of Arta. Don't forget to visit the triple-naved basilica of Aghios Georgios (18th century), at the beautiful square with sycamore trees and traditional coffee shops where you can sample the local tsipouro and liqueurs. The Monastery of Panagia (18th century) contains a small epitaph from 1643 which is embroidered with gold, two gold-plated shrines and a gospel from 1833.
At Aneza, 12 km SW, a town built in a valley containing many aquatic bird species. You can visit the ruins of ancient Amvrakia's fortifications in the bay of Fidokastro.
At Koboti, 14km SE, a town built in an area full of olive trees containing many traditional stone houses and public buildings. This is the homeland of Nikolaos Skoufas, one of Filiki Eteria's founders. The church of Ag. Georgios built in 1741 is wonderful.
At Kommeno, 16 km SE. A lowland agricultural village near a small river which flows into the Amvrakikos Gulf.
At Ammotopos, 17.5 km NW, where you can visit the ruins of the ancient settlement of Orraon. The famous Arta stone slabs are excavated from the wider region.
Activities in the city of Arta
-Hot spring baths at the organized Hanopoulou baths, suitable for skin, gynecological and arthritic illnesses.
Hot spring baths at the organized Hanopoulou baths, suitable for skin, gynecological and arthritic illnesses.
Tzoumerka is a paradise for fans of mountain sports.
The location "Lakkos" near the village of Theodoriana includes a lodgment (information at the Township of Theodoriana).
The mountain Gavrovo near the location "Kanalia" also includes a lodgment (information: Municipality of Tetrafilia).
Furthermore, a forest village with accommodations for visitors operates near the village of Kataraktis.
Celebration of the patron saint, Ag. Theodora, on March 11th.
Celebration of the anniversary of the city's liberation, in June.
Cultural events organized by the Municipality in the summer with theatre, concerts, traditional dances, exhibitions and cinema.
Visitgreece.gr is the official tourism web site for Greece, run by the Greek National Tourism Organisation, where you'll find information on the main tourist destinations, such as cities, beaches, as well as activities, events and much more!
All content included on this site consists intellectual property of GNTO and you are not allowed to reproduce the whole or part of this work in any way.
For information please contact: email@example.com. All Rights Reserved. GNTO © 2020.


text:
MILWAUKEE — The state is paying some landlords significantly higher rent than average to house sex offenders.
WISN-TV in Milwaukee reported the state is paying $1,500 a month for a 480-square-foot house in Manitowoc — about five times the going rate. The state is also paying $2,400 a month for a 1,100-square-foot home in Milwaukee — about the same rent as a lakefront high-rise apartment.
Currently, there are 32 sex offenders on supervised release statewide, costing taxpayers $500,000 a year.
Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Kevin Moore said finding housing for supervised released sex offenders is very difficult so rents are not competitive.
The issue was first reported by WLUK-TV in Green Bay. The Legislature later authorized an audit of the program to evaluate costs and potential savings.